Killing animals in the name of charity

December 1, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2003:

The Harbor Association of Volunteers for Animals in Willapa,
Washington, apparently cancelled a mid-December 2003 benefit pig
raffle after it attracted notice from PETA and the Farmed Animal Net
electronic newsgroup.
HAVA reportedly advertised, “You could keep this pig as a pet…But
Patriotic Packing has also donated processing and wrapping.”
Wrote Farmed Animal Net founder Mary Finelli, “This is
problematically similar to the common practice of animal shelters
serving meat at their social events,” which violates ANIMAL PEOPLE
ethical standard for charities #4b: ANIMAL PEOPLE recommends that
all food served for human consumption by or on behalf of animal
charities should be vegetarian or, better, vegan.

Editorial: Donor defense in a desperate cause

December 1, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2003:

Starting on page 12, ANIMAL PEOPLE for
the 14th year presents “Who gets the money?”
This popular annual feature reveals the financial
affairs of the animal-related charities whose
appeals are most likely to land in your mailbox.
It explains which organizations have money, how
they get it, and what they do with it.
Three pages of prefatory notes help
readers to interpret the numbers. As a further
aid to donors, ANIMAL PEOPLE each spring
publishes a comprensive handbook, The Watchdog
Report on Animal Charities, supplementing the
financial data with succinct descriptions of
programs and any policy or administrative matters
of special note. At $25 per copy, The Watchdog
Report costs less than 25¢ per charity evaluated,
a bargain for any frequent pro-animal donor.

Editorial: Sheltering is pointless until the need is reduced

November 1, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2003:

“We live in a deeply depressed, impoverished, remote and
backward corner of the far side of hell,” someone laments to us
almost every day. “We have never had low-cost or free pet
sterilization and vaccination, let alone a neuter/return program for
feral cats and street dogs. People poison or shoot dogs and cats
with impunity. The dogcatcher sells dog meat, dog leather, cat
pelts, and live animals for use in laboratories. Millions of
animals are in urgent need. Please help us fund a shelter to house
100 of them.”
Such pleas are heartrending, but under such circumstances,
either operating or funding a shelter is pointless, mindless, and
likely to only rearrange the misery in that particular part of hell’s
overcrowded and starving half acre.
No humane society anywhere should even think about starting a
shelter until and unless it receives a gift or bequest of the land
and money needed to build and run the shelter without diverting
resources from sterilization, vaccination, and public education.
Later, if sterilization, vaccination, and public education
are successful, starting the right kinds of shelter at the right
times might represent worthwhile expansions of the mission. But
until the numbers of homeless dogs and cats are markedly reduced, and
until the public shows increased sympathy and tolerance toward them,
putting funds into shelter work makes less sense than using money as
cat litter.

Yellowknife and Connecticut incidents feed the “humane relocation” debate

October 2, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2003:

YELLOWKNIFE, Northwest Territories, Canada–Overcrowded
with 64 dogs seized by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police from
itinerant rescuers Harry and Pat Shermet, the 12-cage Yellowknife
SPCA on September 16, 2003 sent 25 puppies to the Edmonton SPCA.
First Air donated the 650-mile flight. The Great Slave
Animal Hospital donated the required vaccinations.
“We’re glad to help,” Melissa Boisvert of Edmonton SPCA
told Nathan VanderKlippe of the CanWest News Service.
The Edmonton SPCA had only six dogs in its 60 kennels before
the puppies arrived, a legacy of successful pet sterilization and
rehoming.
The Yellowknife rescue exemplified both the promise and the
problems associated with transferring shelter animals to match supply
to demand. The Shermets actually had almost the same idea, after
they were evicted from the cabin where they had amassed 66 dogs in
three years. Loading all the dogs into a trailer on September 5,
the Shermets hoped to find homes for them in Manitoba, but were
intercepted by the RCMP in Rae, just 100 miles down the road. Six
dogs escaped and two were shot during the ensuing chaos.

Four shelters serve Beijing

October 2, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2003:

BEIJING–What Beijing dog and cat rescuers need most may be
PETsMART and a coordinated master plan like those required of U.S.
humane coalitions before they can apply for a Maddie’s Fund grant.
The U.S.-based PETsMART animal supply store chain does not
yet do business in China, despite persistent rumors that executives
are looking in that direction, and Maddie’s Fund does not fund
projects outside the U.S.
Just a few well-located adoption centers like the PETsMART
Luv-A-Pet adoption boutiques, however, could rehome almost every
animal now entering the four major Beijing shelters. Even if each
adoption center placed dogs and cats at just a fraction of the
typical U.S. volume, the cumulative effect would be to undercut the
pet breeding industry before it becomes big enough to produce a
greater surplus.
A Maddie’s Fund-like incentive, meanwhile, might encourage
the Beijing shelters to cooperate to maximize their strengths and
opportunities.

Asia
Tactics

Getting biodiversity backward

July 1, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2003:

CANBERRA, Australia–At least 1,595 Australian native plants
and animals are at risk of extinction, 2,900 regional ecosystems are
imperiled, and the leading threats come from land clearing, sheep
and cattle grazing, drought, and fires, says a recently published
national Terrestrial Biodiversity Assessment. Predation and
competition with native species by introduced species ranked as a
lesser threat in most parts of Australia.
Principally authored by ecologist Paul Sattler, the
assessment was commissioned by the national government. It was
presented to Parliament in late April 2003.
What, three months later, is Australia doing about the findings?

* The Cooperative Research Centre for Pet Control has
applied for permission to send a genetically engineered mouse herpes
virus into field trials–in effect, to begin yet another
introduction of a non-native species.
The Cooperative Research Centre “aims to spread the virus throughout
the exotic mouse population,” reported the Brisbane Courier-Mail,
noting that mouse plagues annually “cost the nation’s grain farmers
about $150 million.”

Nonlethal bison and pigeon population control

July 1, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2003:

“The Santa Catalina Island Conservancy has given In Defense
of Animals the opportunity to adopt and relocate 100-150 bison to the
mainland,” IDA regional director Bill Dyer announced on June 20.
“Fourteen bison were introduced to Catalina for the filming of The
Vanishing American, starring Richard Dix, in 1924. The population
has grown beyond what the island can sustain. It is imperative that
the relocation take place by August 1, 2003. A managed colony of
100-150 bison will remain on the island.” Dyer welcomes offers of
care-for-life homes for the bison at 310-301-7730 or
<Bill@idausa.org>.

Chronology of humane progress

May 1, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2003:

Chronology of humane progress
(Part 2 of two parts: Mohandas to Maneka)
by Merritt Clifton

1947 — At request of Mohandas Gandhi, Jawaharal Nehru wrote
into the constitution of India as Article 51-A[g] that “It shall be
the fundamental duty of every citizen of India to protect and improve
the Natural Environment including forests, lakes, rivers and
wildlife, and to have compassion for all living creatures.” This
was reinforced by the 1960 Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.

1947 — Defenders of Wildlife formed as an anti-trapping
organization, but was taken over by hunters in 1957 and became a
mainstream hunter/conservationist front.

1948 — Minnesota adopted the first law requiring public
shelters to make dogs and cats available to laboratories for
biomedical research, testing, and teaching. Similar laws were
passed by 1960 in Wisconsin, New York, South Dakota, Oklahoma,
Connect-icut, Ohio, Utah, and Iowa. The New York law was repealed
in 1977. Thirteen states, including Connecticut among nine
contiguous northeastern states, outlawed selling shelter animals for
lab use between 1977 and 1985.

Why can’t we stop the Omak Suicide Race?

May 1, 2003 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2003:

Why can’t we stop the Omak Suicide Race?
by Irene Muschel

The Omak Suicide Race, held each summer in Omak,
Washington, has been openly cruel to horses ever since a rodeo
promoter dreamed it up in 1935. It consists of galloping horses over
a steep cliff and across the Okanogan River as the main event at the
Omak Stampede rodeo–and is staged four times each rodeo week.
Why have horse protection groups not given more attention and
effort to stopping this event?
Four years after the Omak Suicide Race started, a Hollywood
producer chased a horse over a cliff during the making of the film
Jesse James. That happened just once. Public outrage over the death
of the horse led to the American Humane Association monitoring U.S.
screen productions.

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